1 62 Wild Life in Wales 



too persistent endeavours to photograph the bird upon it. 

 A few days later I found another nest, likewise containing 

 eggs, a couple of miles away, on the side of Aran ; but as 

 these were the only Twites I saw during the breeding 

 season, I suspect it is somewhat of a rare nesting species 

 here. In February and March, 1905, however, a large 

 flock frequented the fields above Plas-in-Cwm-Cynllwyd, 

 and occasionally strayed down as far as the village ; but 

 they did not reappear during the next two winters. 

 February 1905 was remarkable, likewise, in that on the 

 1 9th, during a heavy snow storm, I met with a party of 

 five Ring Ouzels near the top of Aran. They were wild 

 and restless, and were not seen again before the middle of 

 April ; but one of the keepers assured me that he thought 

 he had seen Ring Ouzels here in winter before, though I 

 confess that at the time I had some doubt about his identi- 

 fication. Over a large part of Scotland, the Ring Ouzel is 

 known as the " Hill Blackbird " ; here it is similarly called, 

 from its haunts, Mwyalchen y graig^ or " The Blackbird of 

 the Crags." 



Cuckoos are everywhere abundant, and make free use of 

 the convenient perches provided by the railway fences and 

 telegraph wires. I found several of their eggs and young, 

 each year, in my railway-side nests ; but it was rather 

 remarkable that the most abundant, as well as the most 

 easily seen nest on the embankments (that of the Tree 

 Pipit), was not once found to have been resorted to by a 

 Cuckoo. I suppose Tree Pipits must have out-numbered 

 Meadow Pipits there, by about ten to one, or perhaps even 

 more, and the habits and food of the birds are so similar 

 that one would hardly have expected the Cuckoo to dis- 

 criminate so nicely between them. Yet, as just stated, I 

 never once saw a nest of the former species made use of, 

 while Meadow Pipits were bringing up young Cuckoos all 

 round them. Just to show there was no ill-feeling, as our 

 Colonial relatives say, I took the liberty of transferring one 

 Cuckoo's egg from a Meadow to a Tree Pipit's nest, and it 

 was duly hatched and the young one reared. I may thus, 

 perhaps, have been instrumental in founding a race of Tree 



